# 2774 - 1993 29c Country Music Legends: Bob Wills

U.S. #2774
1993 Bob Wills – Country & Western
Legends of American Music Series

• Celebrates Bob Wills and his contributions to Country Music as well as music as a whole
• Issued as part of the Country & Western honoring members of the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Part of the Legends of American Music Series

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Set:  Country Music Legends
Series:  Legends of American Music
Value:  29¢, First Class Mail Rate
First Day of Issue:  September 25, 1993
First Day City:  Nashville, Tennessee
Quantity Issued:  100,000,000 (Includes booklet stamps and panes of 4)
Printed by:  Stamp Venturers
Printing Method:  Photogravure (Printed on a Champlain webfed gravure press)
Format:  Pane of 20 (horizontal, 4 across, 5 down)
Perforations:  10.1 x 10.2 (sheetfed stroke perforator)
Tagging:  Prephosphored paper

Why the stamp was issued:  This stamp was issued to honor country music legend, and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Bob Wills.

About the stamp design:  All four Country & Western stamps picture artwork by Richard Waldrep.  The designs were created using Waldrep’s airbrush paintings based on photographs sent to him by USPS researchers.  Both the Hank Williams and Carter Family stamps have orange backgrounds while the Patsy Cline stamp has a blue-violet background and the Bob Wills stamp has a variegated background shifting from mauve to fuchsia.

First Day City:  This stamp, along with the rest of the Country & Western set, was issued on stage at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, the capital of country music.  There could be no better place for the First Day Issue Ceremony of the stamps honoring members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

About the Country & Western set:  The four-stamp set was issued to commemorate a handful of the men and women whose contributions to country and western music made history.  The set pictures Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, the Carter Family, and Bob Wills.  The Hank Williams stamp was the same design used earlier in 1993.  Each person pictured in the Country & Western set has the designation of being listed in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

About the Legends of American Music Series:  The Legends of American Music Series debuted on January 8, 1993, and ran until September 21, 1999.  More than 90 artists are represented from all styles of music:  rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, country and western, jazz and pop, opera and classical, gospel and folk.  In addition to individual singers and Broadway musicals, subjects include band leaders, classical composers, Hollywood songwriters and composers, conductors, lyricists, and more.  The Legends of American Music Series was a huge advancement for diversity because it honored many Black and female artists.

History the stamp represents:  Born into a family of old-time fiddlers, it was only natural that music would play an important role in Bob Wills’s life.  Although he pursued various occupations including farming, barbering, and preaching, Wills eventually went on to become a full-time musician.

Hired to fiddle with the Fort Worth Doughboys, Wills made his first recording with the group in 1932 for RCA Victor.  The following year he split from the Doughboys with his banjo-playing brother Johnnie Lee and vocalist Tommie Duncan to form his own group which became known as the Texas Playboys.  For eight years they performed on a Tulsa, Oklahoma radio station, eventually gaining national popularity.

Combining the sounds of fiddling, blues, pop, big-band swing, and Mexican folk music he created a new pop-country style known as western swing.  His recordings for American Record Company and Columbia, such as “San Antonio Rose,” “Take Me Back to Tulsa,” “Faded Love,” and the “Spanish Two Step,” appealed to a far broader audience than old-time fiddling attracted.  And as western swing gained popularity, Wills’ name became a household word.  Despite his failing health throughout much of the 1960s he appeared for his induction into the Country Hall of Music in 1968.